Emergency mass notification system (EMNS) providers distribute succinct information to masses of individuals during an emergency event. Recently, EMNS providers have focused on broad functionality and have turned to computer interfaces for the activation of their products due to the wide range of alerts needed. While the ease of networked communication allows more rapid information dissemination, there are complexities due to the different protocols required by communication infrastructure and networks. Therefore, selecting the most appropriate message to disseminate can take considerable time.
Many emergency managers utilize multiple services to provide the scope of notifications that they deem necessary. For example, one service might send out text messages (SMS), another would create pop-up messages on computer workstations, and a third might initiate audible announcements across a large campus, both indoor and outdoor. Other services may turn on reader board displays, scroll text across the bottom of TV's, make phone calls to subscribers, send emails, call phones, lock down buildings, etc.
The time required to get to an emergency manager's workstation, log on, open the emergency notification application, authenticate the user, find the correct message, and initiate the message is considerable. Doing this for each notification system adds additional time to this process, and is dependent upon each service and system being available and functioning correctly. In current systems, the time necessary to complete the activation of notifications allows for additional damage and loss of life.
Another issue, typically overlooked, as it does not emerge in EMNS system tests, is the immediate overload of most communications systems in the area during actual emergencies. Persons receiving EMNS alerts immediately attempt to contact someone (parent, boss, local authority, etc.). Cellular systems, PBX systems, telco switches, SMS carriers all go into overload. Two way radio systems become over-active and depend on push to talk (PTT) protocols requiring clear air to initiate a message. Critical communications relevant to emergency management cannot get through. Cellular providers do provide priority queuing to registered emergency managers, but this does not resolve all of the issues.